Tercios game Turks versus Polish

We have played several games using this game system from Spain and enjoy the interactive aspect of using the 'Orders' cards unit by unit as you go through the turn.  Often you hope the other team will fritter away their initiative on small objects and purposes so your cleverly designed 'grand plan' will encompass their destruction.

That said the back and forth play until each unit has used its card for the turn does result in a somewhat slower game than other systems, perhaps we should allow 'brigade-level' orders to be executed by all the units in the brigade at once if they are a sufficient distance away from the enemy?

In our scenario the Turks have advanced into the San River area and having crossed the river they created an impressive entrenched camp, the eastern end of which including the town is shown below:

The white cards note terrain advantages and effects, often each terrain piece will need more than one note displayed as it may "Hide Troops" or "Grant + in Melee" etc....

Here the Janissary corps mans the works supported by heavy guns while the Sekban troops have exited the town to support the cavalry.

The cavalry has moved to the north in two large commands of about equal Akinji (light horse) and  Sipahi units with a small contingent of Qapukulu (heavily armed, better trained Sipahi) in each.  They have occupied the hills to the north of the town facing the plain where the Polish forces are expected to deploy from their camp to the east.

And the Poles duly arrive in large blocks of horse with a trailing infantry force on their left (southern) flank.

The Polish plan seems to be a quick advance forward to crush the northern 'wing' of the Turks and then to continue to envelop them as the Polish right wing turns south.

The Turks, however, perform a quick reverse and movement to bring their two cavalry commands closer together and also push their center light cavalry forward to delay the Polish heavy cavalry.  Is this a wise choice, charging in when using their hailstorm of arrow might be a better tactic?

What followed was a confusing mass of charging and counter charging cavalry units that must have raised the dust to the heavens since no one unit seemed able to conclude an attack and overwhelm their opponents. 

One down side of the game is the amount of clutter on table with cards flipped over and otherwise to determine who had already moved and who had not.  Perhaps a pattern on the back of the cards that blend in with the table can be devised???

The fight went on for several turns until the Turkish foot, advancing from the camp was able to bring some concentrated musket fire onto a few of the Polish cavalry units on the Polish left flank.  This caused a quick number of kills that the Turks were able to contest amounted to a 'winning draw' situation. 

A close run thing for both sides.  It was noted that the Heavy Lance rule allows troops armed with such to charge continually and receive the bonus for them instead of only on one turn which some other rules feature.  Also we occasionally fail to remember to make checks against the correct factor (is it a Discipline or a Courage check post receiving hits?).  The rules are rambling and not edited to provide a step by step process and the special units/weapons gets confusing pretty quickly.  That said a lot of enthusiasm and color is offered.

We have chosen not to use the Command features (attributes, traits, etc..) as frankly it is too much added over the top of a creaky pile to us, but others may differ.

Next game the Turks will be attacking against a reinforced Polish/Austrian army higher up on the San River......